Influence Peddler: Diana Madison Launches Skin-care Brand

Diana Madison wants to bring women to the forefront by first directing them to the back of their beauty bottles.
The beauty entrepreneur, who is a creator and executive producer of the TV show "Glam Masters" with Kim Kardashian, and mother of two never paid attention to ingredients until she began experiencing post-pregnancy skin issues. While at Coachella a few years ago, Madison visited a dermatologist in Palm Springs who identified her skin troubles as eczema, promptly instructing her to use clean beauty products. So she took a trip to Rite Aid.
"I remember being at the Cetaphil section and being like, this is my life," she recalled. "Cetaphil looks like barbecue products. It’s not appealing, it’s not cute. I would never tell anyone I'm using it."
Fast-forward to Aug. 22, when she officially launches her skin-care brand, Diana Madison Beauty, to coincide with her birthday. Her eponymous brand debuts online with one product: a face oil called Glowtopia, $45, that contains prickly pear seed oil high in vitamin E. The oil, which Madison recommends using morning and night, is meant to be antiaging, protect against environmental stressors and be gentle enough to be used by those who have eczema. It is also meant to dry faster than other types of prickly pear seed oils, making it optimal for the woman on the go.
Glowtopia, said Madison, has been in the works for about three years and is her first beauty venture. Her career began 12 years ago at "Entertainment Tonight," where she aspired to be an on-camera host. When she was passed up for hosting gigs, she left out of frustration and started her own YouTube channel.
Madison is now the cofounder of digital media company Obsev Studios, whose online channels — including celebrity news platform Hollyscoop — reach more than 500 million viewers per month, according to her web site. Obsev Studios now employs about 30 people.
"I love the fact that my company is diverse, all different types of personalities, people with different backgrounds and ethnicities, different age groups," said Madison. "I’m very big on that because I’m Armenian and I’ve been through so much of not being able to get jobs because of the way I look."
Through Hollyscoop, Madison met Kardashian nearly a decade ago and the two launched "Glam Masters" on Lifetime last year.
"It was exciting seeing that show launch a lot of careers for aspiring makeup artists," said Madison. "Two days ago I got a message from one of the makeup artists that was on the show how much her life has changed." She has yet to hear whether there will be a second season.
Madison's connections don't stop at Kardashian, though. Prior to launch, she sent her Glowtopia product to makeup artist Rokael Lizama, who counts Beyoncé, Ariana Grande and Lala Anthony as clients, and Anastasia Soare, whom Madison considers a mentor. Of the product, Soare said, "I absolutely love Glowtopia. Just a few drops keep my skin looking dewy and radiant throughout the entire day."
In keeping with her YouTube roots, Madison, who counts 163,000 Instagram followers, will launch the Diana Madison Beauty YouTube channel, which will include both educational content for her customers and resources for aspiring beauty entrepreneurs.
"One thing I’m starting is called Building Beauty, videos showing my followers what the process has been like to create a company from scratch — especially a beauty company," said Madison. "Also on the YouTube channel, I want to be able to have some of my famous makeup artist friends and friends come on my show and use the product, talk about it and talk about all the other stuff they do for their skin care."
Madison also plans to make use of her influencer connections and will team with popular beauty Instagram Trendmood1 (1.4 million followers) for the online launch.
"I'm very supportive of the influencer community because I started my career as a blogger people didn’t even know what that was," she said. "Everybody in this day and age is influencing someone. One way I could influence people is to think about clean beauty and be cautious of what they’re putting on their skin. I was that person that was buying things left and right because I read it in a magazine or one of my favorite influencers used it. It was one of the worst things I was doing to myself."
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